Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Sling TV streaming-video service open for business

The arrival of Sling TV could shake-up the entire pay-TV industry. Many potential cord-cutters remain pay-TV subscribers because they want sports programming. Sling TV is the first offering to include ESPN and TBS and TNT, which also have sports including the NBA.

If consumers flock to Sling TV, which doesn't have live programming from major networks such as ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS, it could weaken broadcasters' position in negotiations of fees for cable, satellite and online carriage of their signals, said Brett Sappington, director of research at consulting firm Parks Associates.

"If Sling TV is successful without broadcast channels, that could be a real wake-up call to the big broadcasters," he said.

Sling TV is designed to appeal especially to Millennials who may not want pay-TV service, CEO Roger Lynch says. While many younger adult consumers (82%) do have pay-TV service, that's lower than the 87% of older consumers who have pay TV, Parks finds.

From the article "Sling TV streaming-video service open for business" by Mike Snider.

Previously In The News

HBO Launching Streaming Service in Spain With Vodafone

Partnering with British-based telecom Vodafone, which claims 400 million subscribers in 30 countries globally, including 1 million TV subs in Spain, affords HBO an existing distribution channel. Spain...

The Internet Of How Many Things?

“Online giants have the scale and technology to take risks in new areas of innovation,” said Brett Sappington, senior research director, Parks Associates. “In some cases, these innovations are transfo...

Parks: Millennials Covet OTT Video — And Pay-TV

Parks said nearly 60% of OTT video services in North America are subscription-based. About 64% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to an OTT video service, up from 59% in 2015. Average monthly spen...

Poll shows freeloading young adults hurting media firms

Consulting firm Parks Associates estimates password sharing will rob streaming providers of more than half a billion dollars in revenue in 2019. From the article "Poll shows freeloading young adult...